Linguistic Group project

LING100-003 Sample Final Project: A Grammar of Tagtak

Phonology

Phonological Inventory

Tagtak has an inventory of 17 consonants and 5 vowels.

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar

Plosive p, pw t, tw k, kw

Fricative s, z x

Nasal m, mw n, nw

Glide w j

Lateral l, lw

Tagtak uses four places of articulation and five manners of articulation. Voicing is only used to contrast two pairs of sounds: /s/ and /z/, and /k/ and /g/. The voiced stops [b] and [d] do appear in the language, but only as allophones of voiceless stops. The sound /g/ is relatively rare and only occurs in only a small number of words, although they are all very frequency such as the name of the language.

An important feature of Tagtak phonology involves lip rounding. Nearly all consonants in Tagtak can be rounded or unrounded, with the exception of /g/ and the fricatives. However, even the fricatives have rounded allophones that appear before rounded vowels (see the section on phonological rules below).

The vowel inventory is a typical 5-vowel inventory: /i, u, e, o, a/

Front Back

High i u

Mid e o

Low a

Syllable Structure

Tagtak is a CVC syllable language. A syllable can consist of just a vowel, or a vowel with one consonant on either side, or one consonant on both sides. Word-final consonants occur regularly in Tagtak, but consonant clusters are rare.

Phonological Rules

Rule 1: The voiceless plosives /p,t,k/ become voiced when they occur between vowels.

/iti/ [idi] "sheep" /topa/ [toba] "tool for digging" /akat/ [agat] "birch tree"

This rule does not apply to rounded stops. They remain voiceless.

/sikwo/ [sikwo] "five" /atwa/ [atwa] "before/prior to" /epwotwia/ [epwotwia] "clouds"

Rule 2: Fricatives have rounded allophones which occur before /u/ and /o/

/iso/ [iswo] "truth" /talxu/ [talxwu] "dense/thick" /usupu/ [uswubu] "mysterious"

Rule 3: If a rounded consonant appears before /w/ then an extra /i/ vowel is inserted. This process occurs regularly with the instrumental suffix -we.

/no/ "stick" /no-we/ "to hit something with a stick"

/akw/ "water" /akw-iwe/ "to drink"

/tetamw/ "bed" /tetamw-iwe/ "to sleep"

Writing System

Tagtak uses a variation of the Roman alphabet for its writing system.

Letter IPA p [p] t [t] k [k] g [g] s [s] z [z] h [x] m [m] n [n] l [l] y [j] w [w] 2 [w]

Note that the spelling system does not have any letters for the sounds [d] and [b], even though they are surface forms in the language. This is because the spelling system is based on the underlying phonemic forms of words. For example, the word /iti/ "sheep" is pronounced [idi] but is spelled "iti".

Rounding is indicated in the orthography with a "2". For example, /pwojomwu/, meaning "ticklish" is written as p2ojom2u. Note that rounding is not indicated on fricatives, because, again, the spell reflects the underlying forms. /pwuxu/ "rabbit" is pronounced [pwuxwu] but spelled p2uhu.

The original writing system, developed in the early 1800s, actually used an apostrophe for rounding, so the word /pwojomw/ was written as p'ojom'. However, in cursive writing, or faster script, the apostrophe would end up written with hook joining into the next letter. This somewhat resembled a 2, and it eventually became more common to actually write a 2 even in formal situations. Using apostrophes today makes the writing seem archaic and out-of-date. In most Tagtak word processors, pressing the apostrophe key will usually cause a 2 to be typed instead.

Morphology

Tagtak is an agglutinative language. The only affix type found in the language is the suffix.

Verb morphology

Verbs always carry three suffixes containing information about the number and person of the subject, as well as the tense. The object of the verb is not indicated by any suffix. There are 5 verb tenses in Tagtak: remote past, immediate past, present, immediate future, remote future. The differences between these tenses is described in more detail in the semantics section. The following table shows the possible combinations of these morphemes.

Remote past Immediate past Present Immediate future Remote future

Singular 1 -jutwapwe -jutwapwi -jutwa -jutwazu -jutwaze

2 -jumwapwe -jumwapwi -jumwa -jumwazu -jumwaze

3 -jugapwe -jugapwi -juga -jugazu -jugaze

Plural 1 -xutwapwe -xutwapwi -xutwa -xutwazu -xutwaze

2 -xumwapwe -xumwapwi -xumwa -xumwazu -xumwaze

3 -xugapwe -xugapwi -xuga -xugazu -xugaze

Tagtak morphology is extremely regular and predictable. Singular is marked by /-ju/, while plural is marked by /-xu/. First person is indicated by /-twa/, second person by /mwa/, and third person by /ga/. The future tenses are indicated by /zu/ and /ze/, while the past tense suffixes are /pwi/ and /pwe/. Note that there is no special morpheme that indicates present tense. Instead, present tense verbs only have the person and number suffixes.

The order of the affixes is number, then person, then tense. This can be seen in the following example:

su-xu-ga-zu go-PL-3-IMM.FUT "They are just about to go"

Noun morphology

Nouns in Tagtak can be singular or plural. The plural suffix is /-k/, but it is not pronounced if the noun ends with /k/ or /g/ already. Singular nouns do not have any special suffix.

/mwopwu/ "rooster" /mwopwuk/ "roosters"

/tatwik/ "squirrel" /tatwik/ "squirrels"

Nouns can also take a derivational suffix /-wo/ which changes them into adjectives. The resulting adjective adds a meaning of "resembling the noun". The suffix has an allomorph [-o] that occurs after rounded consonants.

[zada] "lizard" [zadawo] "scaly"

[xotw] "knife" [xotwo] "sharp, pointy"

Syntax

Tagtak sentences typically follow a Verb-Subject-Object order. The subject of a verb can be optionally omitted in a sentence because the verb always carries suffixes indicating the person and number of the subject.

pwo-ju-ga-pwe bo die-SG-3-REM.PAST Bo "Bo died a long time ago"

zagu-xu-twa-zu (nunu) nok eat-PL-1-IMM.FUT (we) chicken "We will eat chicken"

Within a noun phrase, nouns are always first, followed by any adjectives. Rather than prepositions, Tagtak uses post-positions, which follow nouns.

nok bilwa chicken big "a big chicken"

nok bilwa zapwa tia o chicken big island distant LOC "a big chicken on a distant island"

The following is a basic generative grammar of Tagtak, and some example trees.

S → VP (NP) (NP) VP → V (PP) PP → NP P NP → N (AdjP) (PP) AdjP → Adj (AdjP)

pwo-ju-ga-pwe ka ati exe-ju-twa-pwe nwa twitwi die-SG-3-REM.PAST man old born-SG-1-REM.PAST city there "The old man died" "I was born in that city"

gax-ju-twa-pwi nok bilwa usakwi o see-SG-1-IMM.PAST chicken big yard LOC "I just saw a big chicken in the yard"

Semantics

Tense

The categories of "remote" and "immediate" past are important in Tagtak. The remote tenses usually refer to time frames of at least a month before or a month in advance.

su-ju-twa-zo wajax o go-SG-1-REM.FUT year LOC "I'm leaving in a year from now"

exe-ju-twa-pwe nwa twitwi born-SG-1-REM.PAST city there "I was born in that city"

The "immediate" category is normally used for talking about things that happened within the last few moments, or that will happen momentarily. In English, this is often translated with "just (about to)".

kwomi-xu-ga-zu titi walk-PL-3-IMM.FUT here "They are just about to arrive"

sasazu-ju-twa-pwi talk.on.phone-SG-1-IMM.PAST "I just got off the phone"

The immediate past is sometimes used for events that occurred in the remote past, but they still feel fresh in the memory of the speaker. For example, important life events, like a graduation, might take the immediate past suffix.

gakwa-ju-twa-pwi koleti saxi o complete-SG-1-IMM.PAST college month LOC "I graduated from college last month (and I still can't believe it)"

Motion suffixes

For verbs of motion, there is an extra set of motion suffixes which can come after the tense affix. These suffixes indicate something about the direction or manner of the motion.

-ika "away" -oka "toward" -ilwo "in a circle" -ixi "on the ground" -asa "moving side to side" -upwu "in a stealthy manner"

These morphemes are optional, and they can change the interpretation of a verb. The verb /xaxa/ is normally translated as "to walk" in English, but with different motion suffixes, the translations can vary.

xaxa-ju-ga-pwi walk-SG-3-IMM.PAST "She/he walked"

xaxa-ju-ga-pwi-oka walk-SG-3-IMM.PAST-toward "She/he arrived"

xaxa-ju-ga-pwi-ixi walk-SG-3-IMM.PAST-on.the.ground "She/he crawled"

jomwo-ju-ga-pwi-upwu ti zapwa swim-PL-1-REM.PAST-stealthy around island "We swam around the island (to avoid being seen)"

LEXICON

ak2 akw water akat akat birch tree at2a atwa before/prior to bilwa bilwa big bo bo Bo" (name) ehe exe born ep2ot2ia epwotwia clouds gak2a gakwa complete haha xaxa walk hot2 xotw knife hot2o xotwo sharp, pointy iso iso truth iti iti sheep jom2 jomw swim koleti koleti college m2op2u mwopwu rooster n2a nwa city no no stick nok nok chicken nunu nunu we o o in/at/on p2o pwo die p2ojom2u pwojomwu ticklish sahi saxi month sik2o sikwo five su su go t2it2i twitwi there talhu talxu dense/thick tat2ik tatwik squirrel tetam2 tetamw bed ti ti around tia tia distant topa topa tool for digging usupu usupu mysterious wajah wajax year zagu zagu eat zap2a zapwa island zata zata lizard zatawo zatawo scaly

Grammatical categories

1 first person 2 second person 3 third person SG singular

PL plural IMM.PAST immediate past REM.PAST remote past IMM.FUT immediate future REM.FUT remote future LOC location